This invention relates to a container such as a fry kettle having an integral filter system for the essential continuous filtering of the frying medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved construction and relationship of parts for a fry kettle to carry out filtering of the frying medium in such a manner that personnel using the fry kettle are not subjected to severe potentially hazardous working conditions particularly incident to the changing or replacement of the filter and associated parts.
It is generally known by those skilled in the art that when foods are cooked by deep-fat frying, more fat or oil is absorbed by the foods being cooked when the cooking medium contains destructive contaminants such as moisture, free-fatty acids and burnt food particles. Not only are the cooked foods less desirable to the consumer but also there is the need to almost continuously add make-up amounts of cooking oil or fat. This increases the cost of the cooking medium which is further increased by the need to discard the cooking medium because the entrained contaminants have rendered it unfit for further use. In the past, a single charge of frying fat for a deep-fry kettle had to be replaced at least every other day even when attempts were made to strain out at least some of the contaminants from the cooking oil.
One known attempt in the art to provide a filter for the fat used in deep frying is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,147,220 wherein there is disclosed a separate container used to house a filter. The container is connected by a pipe with an opening in the bottom of a deep-fry kettle. The pipe includes a shutoff valve to terminate the flow of hot fat when a sealed cover is unlatched from the filter container. A filter bag is placed in a basket within the filter which also includes a crumb catcher from where the hot cooking oil flows to the inside surface of the filter. The filtered oil is drawn out from the container through a discharge pipe that is coupled with a pump. Because the filter and the pump are isolated from the fry kettle, the return line for the filtered cooking fat must be heated to maintain the fat liquefied. While this system will achieve desirable filtering of the fat used in deep-fry kettles, it nevertheless suffers from the acute disadvantage that operating personnel are subject to acute safety hazards. In this respect, it must be remembered that cooking oil in fry kettles is usually heated to a temperature between 350.degree.F and 400.degree.F. The filter must be disassembled, cleaned and reassembled while total reliance must be made on the integrity of the shutoff valve both that it will not fail and that it will completely terminate the flow of hot oil from the fry kettle. Should the valve fail to function in its intended manner, then the hot oil will drip and flow into the filter container. Thus, personnel are endangered when disassembling the filter container. There is also the imminent danger that the lines to conduct the hot cooking fat may rupture or the fry kettle itself may be jarred or upset during disassembling and reassembling of the filter container.